Right now I am using Seagate, previously I used Maxtor and in one PC that is seven years old, my Maxtor hard drive is still working perfectly. Maxtor hard drives became unreliable when they got a contract with Dell to supply drives for Dell PCs. The quality of the drives got very bad because Maxtor just couldn't keep up with demand. Maybe now that Seagate bought out Maxtor, maybe the quality will return to what it had been before the Dell deal.

I was wondering why Windows had started putting out different versions for different hard drives...(and when!)

I have no idea which version of Windows is worst, having only used three versions.

As far as the hard drives go, I have an internal Western Digital that has been okay and an external Seagate that has also been okay. However, from the reviews I read, I would be inclined to go with Seagate if given an option (it seems to stand up to general wear and tear slightly better than other brands).

Of Seagate, Maxtor and WD, only Seagate drives have never given me any trouble. My Maxtors (4 in all) had a habit of playing up when they got too warm - probably because the circuit board just sat on a set of contacts and flexed with the heat. My WD's have had about a 30% failure rate. Seagates? No failures. Most of these drives are in use 24 hours a day, and I've even had Seagate 500GB and 750GB drives in those fan-free external USB cases with no problem at all.

SEAGATE IS THE BEST because of 3 little words: Five Year Warranty. They also have the highest ratings (that I know of) for impact threshold. So you may be able to throw them on the ground and have them still work; although, I wouldn't recommend it: it voids the warranty! Not to mention the fact that every single Western Digital drive I've got now has a screwed up track 0, which means I can no longer use them as a master drive to put windows on.

On another note I hope the IT guy(s) responsible for mislabeling the topic have now been FIRED! Now, whenever I read your emails I'm going to have to make sure you've labeled the topics right, basically make sure you know what you're doing. So shouldn't I be paid for doing your job?

The email asks what version of Windows do I consider the worst. That would obviously be Vista, but for some reason all of the answer choices are hard disk manufacturers?!?

Oh, I see, the question was supposed to be which brand of hard disk do I prefer. Well, I have never had a problem in the sense of drive failure/lost data. However, if I had to choose a brand, it would be Western Digital, because they have the best compatibility, meaning they work with pretty much any computer or motherboard. I have a Western Digital hard disk in this computer, and I am very happy with it.

I like Seagate drives. That's because Seagate makes them well, and because they have posted a utility that makes it possible to work on them fairly easily if they get off-track. I'm speaking of "Sea-Tools." You can usually get the problem sorted out with that utility. It also works on Maxtor drives. I like the Western Digital drives too, but WD's utility is nowhere near as potent and useful as Sea-Tools.

If we are speaking of bad versions of Windows, how about Vista? It is currently making people crazy.

Best version of Windows? I like Windows 2000 Professional for its stability, easy networking capability, and its good looks. If only it could support the huge hard drives, like Windows XP SP1 and SP2 and Vista.

I used to be a WD loyalist. However after the 2nd WD HD meltdown in 2 years, I switched allegiance to Seagate. Their 5 year warranty is definitely a major reason, price and performance is another. As for WD, I am also not happy with the warranty turnaround. Took over 3 weeks to get my HD replaced, but to give them credit, they upgraded me from a SATA to SATAII (same capacity) to speed up the process a bit. However, meanwhile I had picked up a Seagate Baracuda from a local merchant. Now I have 2 Seagates for my dual boot machine and I am using the WD as temp storage for misc downloads. We'll see if my confidence in WD will be regained.

I've been waiting for someone to realize that the manufacturer of your hard drive is far more important than what version of Windows you're running. At least regarding performance. It's been my personal experience that the Fujitsu's do not perform as well as Maxtor and IBM. I've had no problem with Fujitsu when I'm accessing media or data files. It's just those pesky OS files it acts like a dog with. I think it may have something to do with the way Fujitsu stores dll's. I'm not sure, but I'm going to stick with my Maxtor until Fujitsu learns to store OS files just like data files.

If you want a hard drive with IBM technology in it - i.e the Deskstar and Ultrastar ranges, these are now made by Hitachi GST (http://www.hitachigst.com). IBM did a lot of R&D in hard drive technology and were responsible for many breakthroughs, but they were always competitive on price. I don't know if or how things might have changed since Hitachi took over though.

I've built a lots of computers and used many types of hard drive's but I must say IBM drive have served me very well unlike the others. And now that Hitachi has purchased them their even better with newer technology built into them. They are very smooth running very little noise, If I were to rate hard drive manufactures it would be in this order Hitachi,Western Digital,Seagate,Maxtor. But this is my opinion only I have been a tech for 30 years I worked for a major company all this time, when we got into computers in 1982 my company sent me to school for this type of training it needed to stay competitive so I think I know a little about quality.

I have lost two (count 'em, 2!) Western Digital hard drives, complete with all my data, when they were less than a year old.

I got 'em at different times and they were different sizes, yet they both died without any indication whatsoever; right in the middle of garden-variety computing tasks (no intense database work, video editing, or CD-burning chores were being performed at the time) they just crashed without warning - the first I knew of it was the BSoD, which was also the last thing I knew, as well.

In both cases no data could be recovered from the discs, not even professionally.

i am maxtor fan had multiple drives managed two to kill one dropped second disconnected improperly but that was it. i had samsungs work related had three failures of four different drives.also since there are maxtor no more i got portable segate 300gb it works fine

The worst windows ever was windows millenium edition. 95 had it's initial issues, as did 98, and XP was almost as bad as ME was, til SP2 came out. Vista of course has it's own issues. For some reason, I dont remember the issues with windows as bad with 3.11 and earlier. Does anyone else?

Now for the hard drive question:About 10 years ago, I purchased a Maxtor H/D. In those days, you paid $300+ for a "large h/d" approximately 20-30 gigs. It was horrible to install. And, once installed, within days, the plates started slapping.So, I exchange it. Same thing. Last time i trusted Maxtor. I then exchange it for a Western Digital. Easy install. Actually, the drivers installed so quick, I wondered if it actually installed correctly.Problem with WD, however, is every WD i ever owned, went out within 2 years. Im using Seagate right now, so, we'll see. 5 year warranty sounds cool to me. If it doesnt last, then i'll move on. I have no loyalty to hard drive companies.

I have no use for maxtor. I used to make a liveingbuilding PC's and repairing them. Maxtor was nearly ALWAYS the drive that failed. In my experience theyhave about on average a 14 to 18 month life span. And whenthey go - they go hard, fast and complete. Seagate has been my choice of drive since the mid 80's andfor a while there was Quantum. I have some seagates that are 120 megs in my oldest pc,yeah I still run it occasionally, that are still spinning just fine. when seagate bought maxtor - it sent a chill up my spine,I dont know what they are doing with it. time will tell.ted

Mainly because I've never had one break on me in my 6 years of building. Also when I was in shop in my high school there was a shelf with a bunch of old random hard drives pulled from various systems that still worked. Take a guess what brand showed up the most? I mean I saw Western Digital Caviars from 1992 that still worked lol.

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